My Heart Belongs in the Blue Ridge – Laurel’s Dream

by Pepper Basham

My Heart Belongs in the Blue Ridge – Laurel’s Dream is one of the sweetest books I’ve read recently. Pepper Basham has such an engaging writing style, utilizing humor, drama, and romance, which hooks a reader from the beginning.

Laurel’s Dream focuses on Laurel McAdams, an Appalachian young woman who has aspirations to go to college and return to her beloved mountains to teach children. She’s Appalachian through and through, but smart, tender, and kind. She’s encouraged to pursue not only a college education, but a writing career by the newly hired teacher Jonathan Taylor. Jonathan is very much like Laurel except he’s from England and thinks his stay in America is only temporary. After the two meet, it isn’t long until mutual admiration turns into something more.

There are laugh out loud moments and the Appalachian expressions will surely cause a chuckle or two. There are tender moments, especially between Laurel and Jonathan and Laurel and her family. And there are break your heart moments involving dreams – Laurel’s mother’s lost dreams and what seems like Laurel’s lost dreams.

For me great books invoke emotion and relatability. As I read this story, Laurel’s mother made me think of my grandmother. She wasn’t Appalachian, but she lived in the “country” almost her entire life. Her parents took her out of elementary school and put her to work in the fields, so her education was very limited. But she was a smart woman, who if given the right opportunities, could have done just about anything. I don’t know that she ever regretted how her life turned out, but I am sure she had dreams as a girl that didn’t come true.

My Heart Belongs in the Blue Ridge is a book I would read again and again. I don’t know if future readers will come across it, but if classic books are still being made, this surely will stand the test of time. It is just lovely.